Sanjeev Rajput secures India's 8th Olympic quota in shooting with silver
Rio de Janeiro: Sanjeev Rajput secured India's eighth Olympic quota in shooting with a silver medal finish in the men's 50m rifle, 3 positions, event at the World Cup here on Thursday. Thirty-eight-year-old Rajput shot 462.0 in the eight-man finals, finishing second behind Petar Gorsa of Croatia (462.2). Gorsa won the Olympic quota in air rifle. China's Zhang Changhong clinched the bronze medal.
Rajput, a former Indian Navy marksman from Haryana's Yamuna Nagar, could have won gold but for a poor last shot. This could have been his second World Cup gold after the he won one in 2011.
Rajput had been denied a chance to compete in the Rio Olympics after his quota had been exchanged for a shotgun spot by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
The Navy marksman staged a remarkable comeback after a poor start in the finals. His first three shots were in the 9s. However, a 8.8 final shot meant he finished behind Gorsa by just 0.2 point. Rajput had qualified for the final in second place (1,180), following a successful appeal by India after a scoring equipment malfunction. He began the first kneeling position poorly but recovered well to move up to fifth after 10 shots.
By the end of the 15th and final shot in the position he was at fourth, which he maintained till the end of the second prone position series of 15 shots. He still had some ground to cover and responded with a brilliant standing position series - a 10.9 on the 36th and an encore on the 43rd, putting him in contention for gold.
Had he shot better than the 8.8, Rajput could have won his second ISSF World Cup gold medal.
However, the effort was good enough for Rajput to join India's other quota holders Anjum Moudgil, Apurvi Chandela, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker.
The World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold medallist shot 392 in kneeling, 398 in prone and 390 in standing to make it to the eight-man finals.
China's Changhong Zhang topped the qualifications with a total of 1,181. Among the other Indians competing in the event, Chain Singh finished 49th with 1161, Parul Kumar was 57th with 1148. Only five shooters were eligible to win Olympic quota in the event.
In the men's 10m air pistol event, Saurabh Chaudhary (584 points) and Abhishek Verma (582 points) qualified for the final, while Gaurav Rana was 44th with 571.
In the women's 25m pistol, Chinki Yadav finished 10th (584 points), Annu Raj was placed Singh 25th (579 points) and Abhidnya Ashok Patil was 53rd (572 points).
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3 US troops killed, 5 seriously wounded during Iran attacks, military says
Washington (AP): Three American service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during the US attacks on Iran, the military said Sunday, marking the first American casualties in a major offensive that has sparked retaliation from the Islamic Republic.
US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, announced the deaths in a post on X but did not say when and where they occurred. The statement said “several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions” and were going to return to duty.
Central Command described the situation “as fluid” and said it would withhold the identities of the service members who were killed for 24 hours after their families were notified.
The US military also denied Iranian claims that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was struck with ballistic missiles, saying on X that the “missiles launched didn't even come close.”
President Donald Trump had warned that American troops could be killed or injured in the operation.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties,” the Republican president said in a video address released early Saturday. “That often happens in war. But we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future.”
Following the US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other leaders, Iran's counterattacks have struck US bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israeli and American military installations.
Before the strikes, Trump had built up the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades. The arrival of the Lincoln and three accompanying guided-missile destroyers at the end of January bolstered the number of warships in the region.
The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and four accompanying destroyers later were dispatched from the Caribbean Sea to head to the Middle East.
The Ford was part of the US raid in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges. The operation in January claimed no American lives but left seven US troops with gunshot wounds and shrapnel-related injuries.
One of those injured received the Medal of Honor during Trump's State of the Union address last week. Trump said Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover piloted the lead CH-47 Chinook helicopter that descended on the “heavily protected military fortress” where Maduro was staying.
Trump has launched several military operations during his second term, including strikes on members of the Islamic State group in Syria in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter in December.
The US military has also struck IS forces in Nigeria, after Trump accused the West African country's government of failing to rein in the targeting of Christians.
